this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2023
126 points (93.2% liked)

Asklemmy

43746 readers
1347 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy πŸ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Assume that the future can change based on your actions, so any historical information that you bring along with you from the intervening 25 years may quickly drift out of the new realities history.

Edit: also assume that you can be given a healthy 21-year-old body if you want or take your previous self's place.

Further, identification will be provided for you if you were not born at that time.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] CIA_chatbot@lemmy.world 49 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (5 children)

Lottery numbers and a historical record of the stock market: first, win lottery then invest based on performance

Become a billionaire, then join the oligarchy and use my stock knowledge to bankrupt the rest of the oligarchy

[–] CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 39 points 11 months ago (3 children)

At some point, wouldn't having future knowledge of the stock market either lead to you changing the stock market with the presence of your money until your predictions lose their accuracy, or else get you investigated for insider trading due to it being statistically insanely unlikely to be that lucky?

[–] grabyourmotherskeys@lemmy.world 9 points 11 months ago (3 children)

You could just spread it across a bunch of GICs and then ETFs that were solid performers. You have your lottery money, you just need to earn enough to live the way you want. With enough invested but diversified you could make a fortune without influencing anything as a result of personal choices.

If anythjng, the initial lottery win will have the biggest impact on the timeline, assuming you lay low afterward.

Now, here's the thing. I'd say you would be sharing those winnings with the original winner unless you prevented them from getting the ticket so find a jackpot twice as big as you need and hope a bunch of yous from alternate timeline don't get the same idea.

That's what would happen to me and I'd end up winning about $3.50.

[–] Bizarroland@kbin.social 8 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

You could also find some of the lottery winners that absolutely hated what happened to their lives after they won and win the draw right before their ticket would have won.

That way you spare them the misery that the money brought them and you get a nice chunk of change for yourself in the process.

[–] unoriginalsin@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago

Now, here's the thing. I'd say you would be sharing those winnings with the original winner unless you prevented them from getting the ticket

The January 2nd Powerball draw was not won by anyone and paid $39M.

That's plenty of seed money to invest in Google, Bitcoin, et al with perfect knowledge of stock trends. Even if it's only short term knowledge due to breaking from the original timeline, you could easily grow your investment into the billions overnight.

Perhaps the most amazing stock of the year was Xcelera.com, formerly known as Scandinavia. Once a closed-end fund specializing in Scandinavian stocks, and then an operating company that owned a hotel in the Canary Islands, it made a small investment in an Internet company last year. Before it disclosed that investment, the family of Alexander Vik, the company's chief executive, was given options to buy a million shares of stock, at a price of $3.25 each. The shares ended 1998 at $3.75, or $1.25 adjusted for two subsequent splits. They ended 1999 at $139.50, an increase of 11,060 percent. The Viks' option position is now valued at $415 million.

[–] CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

If a bunch of you's from another timeline can come too, that opens the door to more interesting shenanigans anyway, like if they all get unique valid IDs, one of you could run for political office and get enough alternative selves to come back and vote for them to win. Or get different versions of yourself to run for all the political offices in a given area while bringing enough copies to win all their elections, and completely dominate the politics of the area by having everyone in office have the same or very similar views.

[–] grabyourmotherskeys@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

The downside here is I'd have to spend all my time with other me's. I'm pretty sure I'd get on my nerves very quickly.

[–] Bizarroland@kbin.social 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

If you have never seen it, you should watch the British television show Red Dwarf.

There is a character named rimmer who is dead and has been brought back as a hologram.

Relatively early on in the series, through some Star Trek fuckery he manages to bring another version of himself back and begins to cohabitate with himself.

Aside from that, if you even reasonably like science fiction or comedy then it's a damn good show to watch. It's been running for 12 or 13 seasons, it started back in the '80s, and as far as I'm aware there is another season scheduled to be released.

[–] grabyourmotherskeys@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

"Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast!"

[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 2 points 11 months ago

We'd be too distracted by all the sex to do any of that stuff.

[–] CIA_chatbot@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

I think as long as you’re careful you could avoid crashing the market until you are ready, and they would have to prove insider trading. I could spread my stock purchases through a bunch of shell corporations as well

Don't go all in to try and be the majority in a ton of things, and good luck PROVING insider information.

Besides if you make enough money, you can just make investigations go away as long as you aren't too flashy about it. Or have a convenient distraction story waiting elsewhere to divert attention away from yourself.

[–] DharmaCurious@startrek.website 14 points 11 months ago (1 children)

... It freaks me out that is exactly my plan that I've spitballed in the shower several times.

[–] Tolookah@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 11 months ago

Cia_chatbot knows.

[–] Zellith@kbin.social 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Bear in mind that logically, the longer time goes on and the more you interfere, things will diverge. You might only be able to win the lottery a handful of times before the butterfly effect starts giving you numbers which don't match your predictions from the future. I figure the same thing happens with investments. If someone buys a tonne of shares using billions, the history of the stockmarket will change and over time be unreliable outside of certain events. Might be wise to buy up aquire certain talent though.

[–] timicin@kbin.social 1 points 11 months ago

make your billions by buying lots of small, but super profitable investments.

[–] squiblet@kbin.social 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, just buy Apple, Amazon, Google and Facebook when it comes out and you’re all set.

[–] Bonehead@kbin.social 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Also, start generating Bitcoin in late 2009 and sell it all on Nov 10, 2021.

[–] Bizarroland@kbin.social 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Sell it when it's in the 10,000 range the first time, circa 2015, then buy back when it drops to 400 in late 2016 and then hold

[–] squiblet@kbin.social 4 points 11 months ago

It spiked to 17,000 in 2017 too, if I recall.

[–] PeepinGoodArgs@reddthat.com 3 points 11 months ago

Just buy Apple and Microsoft. You'll be fine.